I agree with this in principle but in practice in a school of over 2000 users it's just not possible to keep control of passwords as pupils constantly forget them. It would soak up too much time if we didnt delegate some control to certain lab staff.
There's also the possibility that if a member of staff asks us to do a passsword reset it may be that the pupils class is finished before we get a chance to do it if we're out of the office for any reason. This was one of the main reasons we relaxed the policy.
We use MMC console's aswell BTW
I agree with you on a large scale, its difficult to meet the demand of students needing there passwords changing.
@ Dave-a
Im sure you probably aware of this but, I would double make sure that the password policy on the server is set high, so staff cant go giving kids passwords like 'Superman' etc.
I have very little confidence with staff when it comes down to network security. Some times I feel like they just laugh behind our backs.